Last week, the New York Court of Appeals held that a town may ban oil and gas exploration and production activities, including hydraulic fracking, within its municipal boundaries through the adoption of local zoning laws. The Court held that the supersession clause in New York’s Oil, Gas and Solution Mining Law, set forth in section 23-0303(2) of the Environmental Conservation Law, does not pre-empt the “home rule authority” that is vested in municipalities to regulate land use. read more